Interim state superintendent admits 2010 reprimand

To his current and former bosses, Michael L. Sawyers' use of a school district's credit card for personal purchases a few years ago was a minor mistake.

Joe Vardon, The Columbus Dispatch

To his current and former bosses, Michael L. Sawyers’ use of a school district’s credit card for personal purchases a few years ago was a minor mistake.

Sawyers becomes acting Ohio superintendent at 5 p.m. today, temporarily taking over for a man who resigned after being found by the state inspector general to have engaged in misconduct and ethical violations, including directing state employees to do personal business for him on the public’s dime.

But in 2010, Sawyers, now 43, was reprimanded by Perry Local Schools in Lake County for using the district’s credit card to make $858.19 of personal purchases, according to school-district records.

Over a period of two years,Sawyers bought pizzas, paid for a bottle of wine during a dinner with a Perry board member that was supposed to have been charged to a different bill, and used a leftover Disney World meal card originally purchased for student band members, he told The Dispatch yesterday.

The reason for the mistake?

“They’re the same color ... and I just wasn’t paying attention,” Sawyers said of his personal and district credit cards. “I might’ve been on the phone when I bought something and I just didn’t look,” referring to the pizza purchases.

Sawyers admitted it was a mistake and repaid the school, according to school documents, and the Perry board tightened its credit-card policies as a result.

Ohio Board of Education President Debe Terhar said she was made aware of the issue last week shortly after Inspector General Randy Meyer released results of a yearlong probe of Superintendent Stan Heffner. It showed he had lobbied Ohio lawmakers in 2011 on legislation likely to benefit a standardized-testing company with which he had accepted a job.

Meyer also said that Heffner had his assistants do personal work pertaining to his new job — which he ultimately never took after deciding to stay on as Ohio’s permanent superintendent.

“It was an error that is commonly made,” Terhar said of Sawyers’ actions, arguing that they are not comparable to Heffner’s. “My husband and I have a business credit card and a personal credit card, and they’re identical. It’s easy to mix those up.”

The board meets Aug. 20 to decide what to do next. Sawyers said he disclosed his infractions to the state board during the hiring process in 2010. He said the mistake won’t affect whether he applies to replace Heffner on a full-time basis.

“I would let my track record for the last 23 months speak for itself,” Sawyers said. “I think I’v e done an incredible amount of work in a short amount of time.

“Yeah, I know this happened, and I publicly disclosed this happened.”

Suanne Sines, president of Perry’s school board at the time of Sawyers’ trouble, said Sawyers “ did wonderful things for our school district” and he would be “an asset for any educational institution that’s lucky enough to have him.”

But Sines also called the controversy surrounding Sawyers’ credit-card use “an ugly time for Perry schools” and said “in some people’s minds” Sawyers’ mistake was “huge.”